Sunday, December 4, 2011

Choosing the Perfect Wand Pt. 1 and Mysterious Updates

Choosing a wand, to me, is just as important a decision as choosing an entire outfit. Your wand is a summary of your outfit, and by extension, your wizard's playing style. Its looks show the theme of the outfit and its stats can show how much work you put into having a nice outfit or what you most prefer where Critical and Block are concerned. It can identify you as someone who enjoys PvP or PvE. Sometimes, I find myself judging other people's play style simply by their wand. Therefore, the decision is important to me, too. In fact, it is such a big part of your wizard, that I have divided this into two parts.

I'm going to take you through my wand decisions for four of my characters - my Ice, Myth, Death, and Balance. Each wizard has a different outfit. They're all pictured above. Due to Zafaria and all of the recent updates, you might not see them looking exactly like this in the game, because I haven't finished the world, decided on my favorite gear, and stitched everything yet. In this section, I will talk purely about appearance, in the next I will discuss stats. Here we go.

My Ice character, if you'll notice, has a sophisticated look. You might think that he would carry a staff or cane, but I wanted him to be a prepared adventurer - he would have a knife of some sort. Not a longer, flashy sword, but something smaller, that would be seemingly easy to carry, and that matched the colors of his gentlemanly look. Initially, I considered the a wand like the Bolt Blade - but one that has no magic or added effect to it. The Rod of Rime was also a possibility. Having a rare wand was appealing - I was a wand collector, and a wand that not everyone had was not only a conversation starter, but it also looked nice and refreshing. The rare wands were also usually more detailed. They had been put together for something special.

When going through the Beckett Items, I found several wands that I knew I must have. The Blue Raptor was the perfect wand for my Ice character, and so I stopped by the Beckett Website, looked into a few giveaways, and set out on a journey to obtain many of these wands.

Before long, my Ice character took the Blue Raptor and finally had his perfect wand - it would be very hard for anyone to change my mind here!

My Myth character is still a lower level, so you don't see him up top, but he's currently my PvP project, and is about eight successful games from Warlord. I had always loved the look of the PvP robe - it was fairly rare, seeing as only Commanders had it, and so I wanted one for my Myth's outfit. The only way for me to get one, though, was going to be PvPing, and that's the reason I started doing ranked. Then the Epic Bundle was released.

After I reached Commander, I wasn't going to easily have the robe - I did not have enough tickets. "Downranking" seemed risky and in some people's opinion, unethical, and so I avoided it. I decided, instead, that I would use the robe from the Epic Bundle, and once I reached Warlord, I would spend my tickets on the three stunning trophies for sale. Originally, I wanted the version of Soulsinger's Soulsword without the magic, but then I saw someone with the telescope-like wand, and decided that that was the new wand of choice for my Myth! I crafted a Storied Spyglass for when he leveled high enough.

The Storied Spyglass seemed perfect - it even had Myth symbols on it! That's when I remembered searching through Beckett items - the Galvanic Hammer! This was a rare hammer that would look perfect with my Myth character! And so through giveaways and Beckett magazines I searched, and eventually came upon a Galvanic Hammer for my Myth! And it was decided that this was what he would use - in terms of looks, anyway. If you haven't seen a Galvanic Hammer, I suggest taking a look at one on Wizard101 Central. Search "Beckett Items."

My Balance was a bit easier to choose for. The Galvanic Hammer, though suiting for Balance, had been given to my Myth, and so he would be forced to find another sword or staff or wand or hammer or whatever he might choose.

So he set out to searching, and there was the Goldbeak Sword, but I never could come across one and it seemed more fitting for another school. When Celestia was released, though, my wish was granted - there was a crafted Balance staff with a titled magnet at the top. I loved it. They later added a glow and "magnetic pull" look to it. While some really disliked it, I found it quite pleasant, and kept the staff. As you can see in the header, my Balance's serene and calm look goes nicely with a staff, and this one is both rare and fitting. I don't know that I've ever seen one other than my own.

My Death character was and is not so easy to choose for - and that's where I need your help! My Death was faced with a number of options. There was his Cerulean Edge and what was supposed to be his Myth's Storied Spyglass, and both were a golden color. They went with the black well enough. My Death character was my first and one of my favorites, for he loved to defeat enemies creatively, and always looked for not the most efficient way, as so many wizards did, but the most enjoyable way. That was something I truly loved about my Death character. He has always struck me as an adventurer - he was the first to do most new worlds, and exploring was one of my favorite parts of new worlds. He used a Dark Crow pet, my absolute favorite, and basis for all of my pets with great talents. Despite the fact that it originated as a Derby pet, I've only EVER has one selfish talent on any of my tons of Crows.

Then there were the Scythes. They were nice, but I disliked the swirl of blue around them. I eventually decided against them, at least for the time being.

But of course, with the remembering of those rare, Beckett items, several caught my eye and instantly overruled any wand that I owned. One was the Umbra Blade and the other was the Amaranthine Staff. Despite the fact that many owned an Umbra Blade, I could never come by own. In many of Central's giveaways, they were second and third place prizes, where grand prizes might consist of bundles or many crowns. I always told myself that if I won, I'd very well ask the second or third place person if they'd like to swap prizes, seeing as I'd always wanted that Umbra Blade.

Finally, I acquired both wands. This made the decision harder. The blade has "adventurer" written all over it, and yet, the staff said "master wizard." Both were so much nicer than I'd ever realized from pictures. The Amaranthine Staff had small, purple areas up and down it that glowed, and a glowing crystal at the top, which was surrounded with magic and two, smaller crystals that wove their way around the larger one. The Umbra Blade was not a plain one, but a blade whose purple crystals in the main area of the handle and on the back of the handle glowed. The yellow at the tips of the "claw" looking handle also grew brighter and dimmer. The blade also occasionally flashed with light like no other blade before it. It didn't have any odd glow that was actually a pixel or two beyond the end of the blade, but rather, it looked like it actually reflected the light as your character swayed idly. Between these two, I could not decide.

Ok, let's take a quick break from "wand talk," and hit a few surprise updates Kingsisle threw in the past few days.

First of all, Mirror Lake is a bit different now. When you previously fought those "bugs" during the third battle in the instance, they were all Ice. Now, two have converted to Storm. In the final, Spider battle, two of those previously Storm spiders are now Balance. ~Colin Dragoncoin~ on Wizard101 Central finds them easier to beat, but you'll have to decide for yourself!

They also slipped a surprise reagent into some of Zafaria's crafted Ice gear and rings and athames called a Shark Tooth. It upset many users waiting for a slot, ready to craft, when they logged in and the scales had been replaced with this new reagent. No one knew where to find it, and a thread opened quickly.

Two different wizards received two different responses from Kingsisle:

We are sorry, but we don't want to reveal that information - that would take the fun out of discovering where Shark Teeth come from! Stay diligent, young wizard, and you'll come across a Shark Tooth eventually! Also keep an eye on the Wizard101Central Wiki, as your fellow wizards may have found information about it already. Please let us know if you have further questions.

Sincerely,
KingsIsle Support

P.S. There's a host of information in our knowledge base. To access it just go to www.wizard101.com, log in & click on "Help".

AND

Hello,

Unfortunately, the "Shark Tooth Fairy" is hogging all the teeth and the item is not currently available in game. We are currently looking into this issue and hope to have a fix out in the near future.

Looks like we won't be seeing those shark teeth very soon! Anyway, Kingsisle also surprised even the U.S. when they dropped in a new pet on the U.K. before Felix has even arrived in the United States.

We never did see that pet talent that they said existed with Armor Piercing... maybe this 62 pedigree pet is our answer. We'll just have to wait and see!

And to conclude my post, I'd like to ask my readers, which wand do you think my Death wizard should go with... the Amaranthine Staff of the Umbra Blade? And should another wizard get the one that I don't use? Which one?

I hope you'll let me know you opinion. You see, as a blogger, I really do love your comments. To use a movie phrase that is one of Ambrose's favorites... Go ahead, make my day!

About Swordroll

In becoming an experienced Wizard101 and Pirate101 player, I've found a love for blogging and the gaming community. Visit the Submissions page to find my contact information. You can find me on Google+ HERE.

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